Letters of April 10

PLP Communist School Spreads Internationalism

This letter is a product of a collective effort of our youth club that participated in a communist school and with its collective values.
In Colombia we worked in a very formative and instructive school with a group of comrades from different parts of Latin America and the United States, it was an enriching experience. In the political school, with a good number of participating workers of women and men and youth, we shared opinions and knowledge and realized that the problems of our class have a global level. The same needs and scarcity that we have are not foreign to the workers of different parts of the world.  
Good discussions in the group expanded our knowledge that this system of war and robbery is the only one to blame for the division among us, the producers of the existing wealth. Drug addiction, racism, nationalism, sexism, wage slavery are the promoters of violence and misery of the world’s proletariat.
This is why one of the biggest drug-dealing facilities in the world is found in Bogota, situated two blocks away from the center of logistics and intelligence of the national police, behind the army battalion of the Presidential Guards. This shows it as a very profitable business for the bosses. They want the youth pacified about their future. Meanwhile this murderous system promotes crime with drug trafficking and the prison industry.
We showed all of our comrades that we are firmly committed to the class struggle to destroy capitalism and build a new society. We believe in our international unity, around our communist program, in the growth of new communist leaders. We realize that the youth of the world are very important and are the future in strengthening our Party. We also want to extend an invitation to everyone to participate in our massive and revolutionary May Day so that this important day doesn’t serve bourgeois interests and their political parties, but instead is a commemoration of the battle for communist ideas.
We want to thank the Party for all the efforts and examples given and thank the comrades that participated in this school for offering us their knowledge. It makes us happy to know that this is not of just a struggle of few but it is part of a mass struggle and that the PLP is a communist international party.
Youth of the world: study, read and spread our paper, CHALLENGE.
International Comrades

Fascist, Anti-Communist Popes
Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) from Argentina, the new advocate for billions of poor people ((he gave up his chauffeured limousine) comes with a long, bloody history of supporting fascist, anti-communist governments that committed genocide to support capitalist rulers.
After World War II, many Nazi backers of Hitler were given sanctuary in Argentina, disguised as priests after being processed through the Vatican in Italy. In the 1970’s “Dirty War” in Argentina, 30,000 labor activists, communists and their families simply “disappeared” and were never seen again. Communist women in concentration camps had their children taken away for adoption by wealthy families. Priests who supported impoverished workers were imprisoned and tortured but church superior Jorge Bergoglio refused to help them and years later hid priests in his home who were being investigated for supporting the military responsible for the “Dirty War.”
Pope Benedict who just resigned under a cloud of financial and sexual corruption within the Vatican also supported fascism, racism and war. When Hitler was jailing German priests who criticized fascism, he joined the Hitler Youth Movement that was attacking Jews and communists. Years later Benedict aided U.S. imperialist war in the Middle East and almost started a religious war by attacking the prophet Mohammed and Muslims.
The Catholic Church is in crisis and facing billions in lawsuits for hiding child-abusing priests. For centuries, the Church has earned protection for its vast real estate and financial holdings from European powers by providing millions of religious, obedient, non-revolutionary peasants and workers willing to fight for the rulers’ kingdoms, colonial crusades and empires. Today workers in most developed nations, including Europe, are deserting the Church because they want answers to their daily, worldly problems instead of an infallible, closed male society that bans women’s participation, gays, abortions and contraception.
With the selection of Francis from Argentina, the Church is shifting its emphasis from Europe to Latin America to embrace a more supportive base among 46 percent of the 1.2 billion Catholics. If the Church can mobilize and indoctrinate this vast pool of low-wage peasants and workers with anti-communist ideology, imperialist powers fighting over the Continent’s rich resources would gladly support a Church that would deliver a submissive labor force.
The only way workers can prevent being used as pawns in the Church-ruling-class chess game is to reject their religious, anti-communist ideology. Communism is the ideology of working-class society. We will triumph when we learn to analyze, understand and change the world to meet our needs.
Excommunicated

CHALLENGE comment: A statement by Argentine historian Federico Finchelstein (New School for Social Research in New York) supports the above letter: “The combination of action and inaction by the church was instrumental in enabling the mass atrocities permitted by the junta. Those like Francis that remained in silence during the repression also played by default a central role. It was this combination of endorsement and either strategic or willful indifference that created the proper conditions for the state killings.” (New York Times, 3/18)
The Times also reported that Francis was “the most prominent leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, an institution that remains under withering criticism for its role in failing to publicly resist — and in various instances actively supporting  — the military dictatorship  during a period when as many 30,000 people are thought to have been killed or disappeared.”

Chemistry 101 Does Not Teach This
Several issues ago, lithium (atomic number 3) was described in CHALLENGE as a “rare earth” element. This is incorrect. In fact, under “ordinary” conditions, lithium is the “first metal” in the Periodic Table in the sense that it is the metal with the lowest atomic number (as long as metallic hydrogen is excluded — metallic hydrogen exists only under extremely high pressure, if it exists at all, while lithium is “readily available on Earth).
Lithium is an alkali metal in Period 2, Group 1 of the Periodic Table. The rare earth elements are a set of 17 chemical elements, specifically the 15 lanthanides (with much higher atomic numbers) plus scandium and yttrium.
The rare elements have become a point of contention between the U.S. and China because China has the greatest amount of good quality, rare earth ores and China is announcing restrictions on how much  of its rare earth ores other countries can  acquire. These elements are used extensively in modern electronic “gadgets,” such as computers and fighter jets.
This is one more reason why the U.S. and China could go to war to “settle” the issue. The recent increase in China-bashing articles and reports in the news media is a good indication that an inter-imperialist world war might not be far off.
Of course, this is not what one usually learns in Chemistry 101.
CHALLENGE comrade

Letters from a PLP School:Microcosm of Communism

The cooperation we have experienced all weekend is seldom seen within the current capitalist world. It was refreshing to see that all are expected to contribute to the cause and no one was above responsibility. While the bosses continue to oppress the working class, building our own little community and discussing the root of our world’s corruption was inspiring. Thanks to this excursion, my life is improved by gaining more of the knowledge and experience necessary to advance the fight for communism.
New Comrade
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This weekend, I attended my second communist school, my first as a Party member and newly hired teacher. Last year as a student, I was impelled by the Party’s line to stand up and join the struggle to build a better, communist world. This year, my commitment was not only renewed, but strengthened by witnessing so many young people standing up and offering their dedication to building our Party. The eloquence and clarity of our comrades is what stood out to me the most. A sample: “I don’t want to be the bosses’ puppet anymore.” If this is just a small sample of what our youth is capable of, I am sure we will not have to be puppets much longer.
Red Teacher
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Initially, I came to the communist school to go camping, play games and have fun with my friends. Camping with PLP members and student activists was indeed fun while we played board games and sports that helped us get to know each other better and make new friendships. But I’ve also realized that there is more to the world than fun and games. All throughout the world, workers are getting less recognition and fewer rights than they deserve.
Even rights we’ve already fought for and won are being taken away from us underhandedly and unfairly. I’ve come to find out that rulers take more “recognition” than they are due. Hearing all of the different opinions broadened my mind and although I like going with the flow, I believe I would most definitely stay and join PLP. Not for myself but for other people who have jobs and are being mistreated in any way or people who don’t have jobs because the bosses “don’t have room” for them. I feel I can make a difference and therefore I will, even if it is only a little bit.
My time at the communist school has been ideal. The mutual leadership practiced by everyone here has solidified my world views. We were able to visualize the future as a communist world through our practice of comradeship here at the school. By learning more about the practice and theory of communism, my decision was finalized. The choice to join PLP has been one of the few decisions I’ve made where I have felt completely confident and prepared to carry out.
Student
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I have been going to PL communist schools for years, first as a young student and now as a teacher. Every communist school always inspires me, as I get to participate in a collective that cooks, cleans, works and learns together. We see a true example of “to each according to need, from each according to commitment.” There’s no need to worry about commitment level though, because everyone always gives their all to the work that needs to be done, showing true commitment to the group, and to building a “micro”-communist world. This year was especially inspiring, having students from my school attend. They are new to the ideas of the Party but it was amazing to see them bring their own sharp analyses to the discussions and be so open to communist ideas.
Red Teacher